Fast track

6:17am Friday 22nd August 2008

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Amid all the negative reports about poor performance and crowded trains between Oxford and London, it is easy to forget that, in Chiltern Railways, Oxfordshire has one of the best performing and most innovative train companies in the country.

While successive operators have often struggled to satisfy customers on the Oxford-London line, most notably First Great Western over the last 12 months, Chiltern Railways has been building a first-class service between Banbury, Bicester, Thame and London.

The service has included innovative schemes using bus shuttles to ferry passengers to stations and text ticketing.

We report this week that Chiltern Railways is canvassing opinion on a proposal to build a short loop of track in Bicester, to upgrade Bicester Town station, build a new station at Water Eaton and commence a half-hourly train service from Oxford to Marylebone via Bicester.

If Chiltern Railways would welcome our opinion, it is: When can you start?

This is fantastic news for rail commuters in Oxfordshire. It is also fantastic news for those who would like to use rail services if only the services were regular and reliable enough.

What Chiltern Railways is offering here - and amazingly it says the service could be up and running in four years - is a major improvement in services between Bicester and Oxford, making them really attractive for the first time, and a truly significant improvement in services between Oxford and London.

What is more, it would be financed entirely by the private sector.

Adrian Shooter, chairman of Chiltern Railways, says he believes the line could be up and running by 2012, in time for the next Olympics in London.

If Chiltern Railways says it can deliver that, we have every confidence that it can. It is the wheels of bureaucracy that we fear. If there was ever a case for fast-tracking a valuable infrastructure scheme, then we think this is one.